Sociology-Education-Ethnicity Flashcards
What are the external factors of ethnic differences?
Cultural deprivation, material deprivation and racism in wider society
What factors are involved in cultural deprivation?
Intellectual and linguistic skills, attitudes and values, and family structure and parental support
What do cultural deprivation theorists argue about intellect and language?
Intellectual and linguistic skills are a major cause of underachievement for many minority children, and that many children from low-income black families lack intellectual stimulation and enriching experiences, leaving them poorly equipped for school as they haven’t been able to develop reasoning and problem solving skills
What do Bereiter and Engelmann consider about language?
language spoken by low-income black American families is inadequate for educational success as it is ungrammatical, disjointed and incapable of expressing abstract ideas
What do statistics show about not speaking English at home and education?
It isn’t a major factor as in 2010 pupils with English as their first language were only 3.2 points ahead of those without English as their first language when it came to gaining 5 GSES A*-C including English and Maths
What do Gillborn and Mirza note?
Indian pupils do very well despite often not having English as their home language
What do some cultural deprivation theorists see as a major cause of failure in many black children?
Motivation, as most children are socialised into mainstream culture that instills ambition, competitiveness and willingness to make sacrifices necessary for long term achievement, but some black children are socialised into a subculture that instils a fatalistic attitude that doesn’t value education, leaving them unequipped for success
What do cultural deprivation theorists argue that the failure of adequate socialisation is due to?
Dysfunctional family structure
What does Moynihan argue about black families?
Many black families are headed by a lone mother so suffer inadequate care as she struggles financially and boys lose a male role model of male achievement (cultural deprivation is a cycle of inadequacy)
What did Murray (New Right) argue, similar to Moynihan?
High rate of lone parenthood and lack of positive male role models lead to underachievement of some minorities
What does Scruton argue?
Low achievement of some minorities is due to failure to embrace mainstream British culture
What does Pryce argue?
Family structure contributes to underachievement in some minorities-Asian families are more resistant to racism as they didn’t suffer slavery
What does Sewell argue is a cause for black boys underachievement?
Problem is a lack of fatherly nurturing (‘tough love’) so black boys struggle with emotional and behavioural difficulties-also cultural differences in upbringing
What happens as a result of absence of the restraining influence of a nurturing father?
Street gangs of other fatherless boys offer black boys ‘perverse love and loyalty’, presenting them with a media inspired role model of anti school black masculinity
What does Arnot describe the gangs ideal to be?
The ultra tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos
How does Sewell argue that these gangs lead to underachievement?
They are subject to powerful anti educational peer group pressure as most boys interviewed by Sewell felt that the greatest barrier to success was pressure from other boys, and speaking standard English/doing well in school was viewed with suspicion, and as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment
What does Gillborn say to counteract Sewell?
Not peer pressure, but institutional racism in the education system itself that systematically produces the failure of many black boys
How does Sewell view Indian and Chinese pupils?
As benefiting from supportive families that have an ‘Asian work ethic’ and place a high value on education
What does Lupton argue?
Adult authority in Asian families is similar to authority in school (respectful behaviour is expected from children, which had a knock-on effect in school, as parents were more likely to be supportive of school behaviour policies)
What does a survey by McCulloch show?
Ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white students
What may the low levels of aspiration and achievement in white pupils be due to?
A lack of parental support
What did Lupton find about white families?
In a study of four mainly working class schools (two predominantly white, one Pakistani and the fourth was ethnically mixed) and found poorer behaviour in white school though there were less pupils with FSM, and it was blamed on lower levels of parental support and negative attitude held by white working class parents towards education, where ethnic minority parents saw it as ‘a way up in society’
What did Evans find?
Street culture in white working class is brutal and young people have to learn to withstand intimidation/intimidate others and so school becomes a place for power games of the street to be played out, bringing disruption to education
What was one way to attempt to overcome this cultural deprivation?
Compensatory education programmes, such as Operation Head Start in the USA
Why do some sociologists criticise compensatory education?
They see it as an attempt to impose the dominant white culture on children who already have a coherent culture of their own
What two alternatives to compensatory education programmes have been proposed?
Multicultural education (recognising and valuing minority cultures by including them in curriculum) and anti-racist education (challenging prejudice and discrimination that still exists in school/wider society)
Who criticises the cultural deprivation theory of ethnic differences in education?
Driver, Lawrence and Keddie
How does Driver criticise cultural deprivation theory?
Cultural deprivation ignores the positives of ethnic minority families and achievement eg the black Caribbean family provides girls with positive role modes of strong independent women, which is why black girls tend to be more successful in education than black boys
How does Lawrence criticise cultural deprivation theory?
Challenges Pryce’s view that black pupils fail due to a weak culture and low self-esteem, instead it’s due to racism
How does Keddie criticise cultural deprivation theory?
Cultural deprivation is victim blaming, and they are culturally different not deprived. Under achievement is due to the ethnocentric curriculum
What did Palmer find about material deprivation and ethnicity?
1/2 ethnic minority children live in low income households (only 1/4 of white children do), Ethnic minority 2x likely to be unemployed, Their households are 3x likely to be homeless, 1/2 Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earn less than £7 an hour (1/4 of British workers do)
What in employment is also more likely for ethnic minority workers?
Shift work, and Bangladeshi/Pakistani women are more likely to be engaged in low-paid homeworking
What are the reasons for why some ethnic minorities may be at greater risk of material deprivation resulting from unemployment, low pay and overcrowding?
Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wages, cultural factors such as Purdah in some Muslim households, lack of language skills and foreign qualifications not being recognised, asylum seekers not being able to work, and racial discrimination in labour and housing market
How are these inequalities reflected?
In the proportion of children from different ethnic groups that are eligible for FSM, and so the material deprivation explanation argues that such class differences explain why Pakistani pupils tend to do worse than Indian and White pupils
What is Indian achievement like?
Generally above average, and are usually likely to be from better-off backgrounds eg they are the ethnic group most likely to attend private schools (twice the rate of white pupils and 5 times more likely than black pupils)
What happens if class isn’t taken into account when looking at ethnic achievement differences?
There is a danger of overestimating the effect of cultural deprivation and underestimation of the effect of poverty and material deprivation
What statistics of ethnicity override class arguments?
Even Indian and Chinese pupils that are materially deprived, still do better than most. In 2011, 86% of Chinese girls with FSM achieved 5 or more higher GCSEs, compared to 65% of white girls that weren’t eligible for FSM
What did Modoon find?
Children from low-income families did less well but the effects of low income were much less for other ethnic groups than white pupils
What do dome people argue that poverty in ethnic minorities is due to?
Another factor-Racism
What does Mason say?
Discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin
What does Rex show?
Racial discrimination leads to social exclusion and worsens the poverty faced by ethnic minorities - eg in housing and in jobs (more likely to be forced into substandard accommodation than white people of the same class)
What does Wood et al show?
Study that sent three similar application to job vacancies and the application with the more British sounding name, was more likely to be asked for an interview (1 in 16 ethnic minority applications were offered interviews, compared to 1 in 9 white applications)
What does Wood’s study demonstrate?
Why members of ethnic minorities are more likely to face unemployment and low pay, which then has negative effects on their children’s education
What are the internal factors of ethnic differences in achievement?
Labelling and teacher racism, pupil identities, pupil responses and subcultures, and institutional racism
What did Gillborn and Mirza find?
Black pupils can start school as the highest achievers but have the worst results by the time it gets to GCSEs
What did Strand find?
Analysed entire national cohort of 7-11 year olds and found black Caribbean boys, not entitled to FSM (especially more able) made significantly less progress than white pupils
How do Gillborn, Mirza and Strand demonstrate the importance of internal factors?
Because black pupils start off as the top achievers, and leave as the lowest achievers, it must be due to internal factors, especially as there are claims that in education the effects of cultural deprivation can be seen in children as young as 3 (before they start school)
What do studies generally find about labelling and ethnicity in school?
Teachers often see black and Asian pupils as being far from the ‘ideal pupil’ eg black pupils seen as disruptive, and asian pupils seen as passive which can lead to different treatment by teachers, leading to being disadvantaged and failure
What did Gillborn and Youdell find?
Teacher’s have ‘racialised expectations’, which is why they are quicker to discipline black pupils than others for the same behaviour
What are the teachers ‘racialised expectations’?
They expected black pupils to present more discipline problems and misinterpreted their behaviour as threatening, or a challenge to authority. So when they acted on this misperception, pupils responded negatively and so further conflict resulted (due to racial stereotypes rather than the actual behaviour of the students, who then begin to feel picked on)
What did Bourne find?
Black pupils tended to be seen as a threat and negatively stereotyped, which leads to exclusion, and why there are higher levels of exclusions of black boys, which then affects achievement (1 in 5 excluded pupils achieve 5 GCSEs)
What did Osler find?
Black pupils have higher rates of exclusion, internal exclusions and attendance in pupil referral units that exclude them from mainstream curriculum
What did Forster find?
Stereotypes of black student lead them to be placed in lower sets and streams than other pupils of the same ability (leads to self fulfilling prophecy)
What did Wright find?
Asian pupils fall victim to teacher labelling, they were seen to have poor english so were left out or spoken to by over simplistic and childish language-they also felt isolated when teachers disapproved of their customs or mispronounced their names
How do teachers generally view Asian pupils?
Not as a threat, but as a problem they could ignore, resulting in them (especially the girls) being marginalised and prevented from participating fully
What did Archer argue?
Teachers dominant discourse defines ethnic minority pupils identities as lacking the favoured identity of the ideal pupil
What three pupil identities does Archer say the dominant discourse constructs?
The ideal pupil identity, the pathologised pupil identity, and the demonised pupil identity
What is the ideal pupil identity?
White, middle class, masculinised, ‘normal’ sexuality. Achieves in the ‘right’ way through natural ability and initiative
What is the pathologised pupil identity?
Asian, ‘deserving poor’, feminised, asexual or oppressed sexuality, culture bound ‘over achiever’ who succeeds in the ‘wrong’ way through hard work rather than natural ability
What is the demonised pupil identity?
Black or white, working class, hyper-sexualised, seen as unintelligent, peer led, culturally deprived, under achiever
What does Archer argue about these pupil identities?
Ethnic minority pupils are more likely to be seen as demonised or pathologised eg teachers and student interviews showed that black students were seen as loud and challenging with uninspirational home cultures
What did Archer find in a further study?
Asian pupils seen as too quiet and passive
What did Shain also note?
When Asian girls challenge this stereotype, they are dealt with more severely
What does Archer argue about successful Chinese pupils?
They can only ever be seen as pathologised, and were simultaneously praised and viewed negatively by teachers who saw them as too passive and also hardworking
How do Archer and Francis sum up teachers view of Asian students?
A negative positive stereotype
How did teachers stereotype Chinese families?
As ‘tight’ and ‘close’ and used this to explain the girls’ supposed passivity (eg similar to how they see South Asian girls as victims of oppressive family situations), and wrongly stereotype them as middle class
What are different responses to a negative label?
They could become disruptive or withdrawn, or they may refuse to accept the label and decide to prove them wrong by working harder, so negative labels don’t always lead to negative self fulfilling prophecies
What is an example of pupils responding by rejecting negative labels?
Mary Fullers 1984 study of black girls in year 11 of a London comprehensive school, they were untypical as they were high achievers in a school where most black girls were placed in low streams
How did the girls in Fullers study not accept their negative stereotypes?
Channeled anger about being labelled into their pursuit of success, they didn’t seek approval of teachers unlike other successful pupils, and saw many teachers as racist. They also didn’t limit their friend choice to other academic achievers, and stayed friends with other black girls in lower streams
How did the girls in Fullers study conform?
Only conformed as far as school work. They worked conscientiously but secretly and showed deliberate lack of concern for school routines. Had positive attitude to academic success but relied on own efforts and impartiality of external exams rather than teachers help and approval
What were Fullers girls behaviour like?
Dealt with contradictory demands of academic success while remaining friends with girls in lower streams and avoiding ridicule from anti-school boys. Also able to maintain positive self image by relying on their own efforts rather than accepting teachers negative stereotype
What does Fullers study highlight?
That pupils can succeed even if they refuse to conform, negative labelling doesn’t always lead to failure, and labelling doesn’t always create self-fulfilling prophecies
What did Mac and Ghaill’s study find?
Supporting research study of black and asian a level students found that negative labels don’t inevitably produce a self-fulfilling prophecy
What did Mirza find?
Racist teachers discouraged black pupils from being ambitious through the kind of advice they gave them about careers and option choices
What three main types of teacher racism did Mirza identify?
The colour blind, the liberal chauvinists and the overt racists
Who are the colour blind?
Teachers who believe all pupils are equal but in practice allow racism to go unchallenged
Who are the liberal chauvinists?
Teachers who believed black pupils are culturally deprived and who have low expectations of them
Who are the overt racists?
Teachers who believe black pupils are inferior and actively discriminate against them
What did the girls in Mirza’s study do?
Spent much time trying to avoid effects of teachers’ negative attitudes, including being selective about which staff they ask to help, getting on with their own work in lessons without taking part, and not choosing certain options so as to avoid teachers with racist attitudes
What were the results of Mirza’s study?
Although girls had high self esteem, these strategies put them at a disadvantage by restricting their opportunities. Unlike in Fuller’s study, their strategies were unsuccessful
What four boys responses to schooling, including racist stereotyping by teachers, does Sewell identify?
The rebels, the conformists, the retreatists and the innovators
Who are the rebels?
Most visible/influential, small minority of black pupils, rejected school rules and goals, expressed opposition by an anti-school subculture, ‘black macho lad’ believing in own superiority
Who are the conformists?
Largest group, keen to succeed and accepted schools goals/rules, friends from different ethnic groups, not part of a subculture, anxious to avoid teacher/peer stereotyping
Who are the retreatists?
Tiny minority, isolated individuals who were disconnected from school and black subcultures, despised by rebels
Who are the innovators?
Second largest group, pro-education and anti-school, Fuller’s girls attitudes, distanced from conformists to maintain credibility with rebels while staying positive about academic achievement
What does Sewell show through this variety of boys’ responses?
Only a small minority fit in the stereotype of the ‘black macho lad’ (rebels), but nevertheless teachers tend to see all black boys in this way and this contributes to the underachievement of many boys, whatever their attitude to school and furthermore, many of the boys negative attitudes are themselves a response to racism
What factors does Sewell say are most important in producing underachievement?
Although he notes that teachers racist stereotyping can lead to negative stereotypes, external factors are more important
What is one of the dangers of labelling and pupil responses as an explanation to ethnic minority achievement?
Danger of seeing stereotypes as the product of individual teachers prejudices rather than of racism in the way that education system as a whole eg A-to-C economy
What is another danger of labelling and pupil responses as an explanation to ethnic minority achievement?
Danger of assuming that once labelled, pupils automatically fall victim to the self-fulfilling prophecy and fail, however as Mirza shows, although pupils may devise strategies to try and avoid teachers’ racism, these too can limit their opportunities
What do Troyna and Williams argue?
Have to look beyond individual teacher racism to understand ethnic differences in achievement and so make a distinction between individual racism and institutional racism
What is individual racism?
Results from the prejudiced views of individual teachers and others
What is institutional racism?
Discrimination that is built into the way institutions such as schools and colleges operate
What is critical race theory?
Sees racism as an ingrained feature of society. This means that it involves not just the intentional actions of individuals but, more importantly, institutional racism
What do Carmichael and Hamilton say institutional racism is?
Institutional racism is less overt, more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts…it organises in the operation of established and respected forces in society
What does Roithmayr see institutional racism as?
‘Locked-in inequality’-The scale of historic discrimination is so large that there no longer needs to be any conscious intent to discriminate-the inequality becomes self-perpetuating and feeds on itself
How does Gillborn apply the concept of locked-in inequality to education?
Sees ethnic inequality as so deep rooted and so large that it is a practically inevitable feature of the education system
How do critical race theorists view the education system?
As institutionally racist in several ways
What does Gillborn argue about marketisation?
Marketisation gives schools more scope to select pupils, it allows negative stereotypes to influence decisions about school admissions
Who supports Gillborns view?
Moore and Davenport research in America
What did Moore and Davenport find?
Show how selection procedure lead to ethnic segregation, with minority pupils failing to get into better secondary schools due to segregation (screened for language difficulties) as this selection leads to an ethnically stratified education system
What did the commission for racial equality identify?
Racism in school admissions procedures means ethnic minority children are more likely to end up in unpopular schools
What reasons did the report identify?
Reports from primary schools that stereotype minority pupils, racist bias in interviews for school places, lack of information and application forms in minority languages, and ethnic minority parents are often unaware of how the waiting list system works and the importance of deadlines
What does ethnocentric mean?
It describes an attitude or policy that gives priority to the culture and viewpoint of one particular ethnic group, while disregarding others and so an ethnocentric curriculum reflects one culture (usually the dominant one)
Why do many sociologists argue that the ethnocentric curriculum is an example of institutional racism?
Because it builds a racial bias into everyday workings og schools and colleges
What are examples of the ethnocentric curriculum?
Languages, literature and music, and history
How is languages, literature and music an example of the ethnocentric curriculum?
Troyna and Williams-Hardly any lessons in Asian languages as main focus is to teach European languages, and David-National curriculum is a specifically British curriculum that largely ignores non-European languages, literature and music
How is history an example of the ethnocentric curriculum?
Ball 1994-National curriculum ignore ethnic diversity by creating a mythical age of empire and past glories for England and ignores most history of Black and Asian pupils
What does Coard explain?
Ethnocentric curriculum history lessons undermine black pupils self esteem due to the portrayal of them as uncivilised, leading to failure
How does Stone counteract Coard?
Black children don’t suffer from low self esteem
How else can Coard be criticised?
The ethnocentric curriculum may not cause such an affect as it ignores Asian culture, however Indian and Chinese pupils still achieve above the national average
What does Gillborn argue about assessment?
“Assessment game” is rigged to produce success in white pupils eg in 2003 the baseline tests were replaced with foundation stage profile when it was seen that black pupils were achieving highly
What was the result of introducing the FSP?
Overnight, black pupils appeared to be doing worse than white pupils, eg in 2000 they were the highest achievers on entry to school, but by 2003 they were ranked lower than white pupils in all six developmental areas measured
How does Gillborn explain this reversal of results?
The FSP is based entirely on teachers judgments, whereas baseline assessments often used written tests as well, and also baseline tests were done on entry to primary school whereas the FSP is at the end of the first year
What did Sanders and Horn find?
When more weighting was given to teachers in assessed tasks, rather than written exams, the ethnic divide widened
What is the gifted and talented programme?
Created with the aim of meeting needs of more able pupils in inner-city schools
What did Gillborn note about the gifted and talented programme?
Although it may be seen to benefit bright pupils from ethnic minority groups, Stats show white pupils more likely to be in gifted and talented programmes (2x more than black Caribbean and 5x more than black African)
What did Tikly find about exam tiers?
Schools with ‘aiming high’ initiative to raise black pupils achievement were still more likely to enter them into lower tier GCSE exams after placing them in lower sets
What did Strand’s analysis of large scale data show?
Black pupils were systematically under represented entry into higher tier exam, which reflects teacher’s expectations that lead to self fulfilling prophecies
What does Gillborn call the new IQism?
Where teachers and policymakers make false assumptions about nature of pupils ‘ability’ or ‘potential’ and assume it is a fixed quality that can be easily measured (once measure, they can the be placed into the right set/stream, or onto gifted and talented programmes)
What do Gillborn and Youdell note?
Schools are increasingly using old school IQ tests to allocate streams/sets though Gillborn says there is no genuine measure of potential as tests just show what you can do at the time, not what you could do in the future
What does Gillborn conclude about the education system?
It is institutionally racist, creating an environment in which ethnic minority pupils are routinely disadvantaged
What are the criticisms of Gillborn’a view of institutional racism?
His view only focuses on two issues: the underachievement of some minority groups such as black boys, and the overachievement of Indian and Chinese pupils
How does Sewell reject Gillborn’s view of black boys underachievement, being caused by internal factors?
He believes that, although racism hasn’t disappeared from schools, it isn’t powerful enough to prevent individuals from succeeding, and we ned to look at external factors, such as anti school attitudes, peer groups and role of fathers
How are ‘model minorities’ a criticism of institutional racism?
If Indian and Chinese pupils do so well and outperform the majority of white pupils, how can there be institutional racism in education, as critical race theorists claim
How does Gillborn respond to ideas of ‘model minorities’?
Success of Asian pupils is to conceal the institutional racism by making the system seem fair and meritocratic, justifies failure of other minorities and ignores the fact that ‘model minorities’ still suffer racism in schools
What did Evans argue?
To understand relationship between ethnicity and achievement, you have to look at gender and class
What is an example of how ethnicity intersects with gender to affect achievement?
Connolly’s study of five and six year olds in a multi-ethnic inner-city primary school
What does Connolly show?
Pupils and teachers construct masculinity differently depending on child’s ethnicity (white boys=challenging, asian boys=passive)
What does Connolly show?
Interactions effect where class and gender interact differently depending on the ethnicity
